12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
Overview
- This book had a slow start for me. Reading this directly after reading over 800 pages of James Baldwin may have made Jordan Peterson’s writing skills seem lacking. His usage of verbs and making everything seem as if it is life or death sours the reading for me, but putting this aside there were many gems in this book that were worth overlooking the zealous phrasing. This book has 12 rules for living a better life, being independent, and becoming your best self. The most important of these rules to me was the first which was “Stand up straight with your shoulders back”. This rule tells the reader it is important for them to understand that living is so much more than passing through life but being steadfast for what matters to them and standing up for yourself, beliefs, and ways of life. This book was a good source of information for how people interact and how to put yourself in a mind state to push yourself beyond where you are, but I did not particularly enjoy reading it. I found myself wishing the text were over and done. I watch a great deal of Jordan Peterson videos from his lectures at the university in which he teaches, interviews and speaking engagements which are posted to YouTube. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration that I have watched more than 100 hours of Jordan Peterson content in total, so I am very fond of him and his lecturing style. I was happy to receive Jordan Peterson’s book finally and when I began reading it, I thought the slow start was more due to the content being presented but after dragging myself through 5 chapters I found myself more and more rolling my eyes; not because of the content but due to the way it was being brought to bear. His writing style left me agitated with his verbs, phrases, stories he chose to tell and how he thought to tell the stories. I believe his work is the most important for the intellectual life of the west at this present moment with so much talk of identity politics and feminism. Being a voice of reason in a state of people being extremely sensitive. Speaking truth in the face of a wide range of animosity from many types of people but Peterson stays strong in his speaking roles to which I think is essentially important in society today. The books however I can leave on the table and rather his speaking which is a talent which rivals many great speakers.
Theme
- The theme of this book is self -reliance and independence regardless of life’s troubles, tragedies and happenings
Biggest takeaway
- The biggest takeaway was to fight through life's tragedies and treat yourself like someone you care about.
Overall Satisfaction
- 6/10. This book had a great message, but it had the roughest time getting where it wanted to go. This book is great for any young adult or any person for that matter if one can stay focused on the theme of the writing, and not be whisked away from concentration by the weird titles and hap-hazard stories which align the pretext for the writing. One of the biggest gripes about this title is how Peterson used stories to explain his points. The stories were ill formatted, hard to follow, and overall, not fulfilling to the actual message. Though the book is hard to follow, and one will want it to be over shortly after starting it, the book carries with it great messages of self-determination, discipline and how to be a better more thoughtful person if one can get the myriad of land mines of bad writing and storytelling.
Comments on the Author
- Jordan B. Peterson is the most important intellectual of our day. In a time where people get offended for sneezing too hard it is important to have voice of reason challenging the status quo. In an age where woman’s, gays and trans persons rights means infringing on hereto men’s rights while marginalizing their place in society it is important to have someone stand up for common sense. Woman are gaining a lot in the way of societal enhancements for all their considerations and rightly so, but everything has its cost. One of those cost could be how men view women as far as societal impact of too much power pushed to one side. For a very long-time woman have been marginalized and it is fitting now they are being not only equals but superiors in some spaces; but there is hangover effect of too much force taken to get them to this place. The Me-Too movement has an ugly side of women who have not truly been assaulted just having buyer’s remorse. “Believe all women” has the wart of believing women whom say they were assaulted but were not. These can have a lasting effect and label men in society as rapist who have never committed the act. On tv regularly these types of claims are debunked with athletes and entertainers and so forth. Women want to be equally represented the workplace at the highest levels but don’t want to be construction workers or janitors and window cleaners etc.… Peterson shines a light on the possibilities of what society can become. they gentleman like behavior can become an insult so well-meaning man will just stop being gentleman like holding doors or letting women off the elevator first. He is a lightning rod that is very important for our time.
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